


coffee is one thing

by aromantic-eight (rbmifan)



Category: Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, F/F, Femslash February, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 12:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13590150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rbmifan/pseuds/aromantic-eight
Summary: Most people don't meet their future girlfriend when her dog tries to eat them.





	coffee is one thing

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [guardingdark](http://archiveofourown.org/users/guardingdark/pseuds/guardingdark) and [elizabethdove](http://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethdove/) for brainstorming and beta.

America had forgotten how much she hated human cities. It wasn’t just the iron. She could deal with the iron, unlike _some_ fae she knew. It was the crowds. She’d ducked into a park that was less crowded than the morning streets and bought some ice cream, to consider her options.

There were a surprisingly large number of fae in New York. Tracking down a specific unseelie might take longer than she’d initially thought. Maybe if she—

Her ice cream went flying as 60 pounds of fur and claws crashed into her from the side. America felt claws in her shoulder and found herself staring at a snarling mouth. Shit. What the fuck was a hellhound doing in New York? Shit. America scrabbled at the ground, wincing at the pain that shot up her shoulder when she moved her arm, and pulled with her magic. She was off guard and a bit panicky, and barely got a blast of dirt in its face when it leaned in, mouth wide.

From out of her field of view she heard, “ _Lucky!_ Lucky, bad dog! Get off her!” The hellhound growled from where it still had America pinned and then, surprisingly, pulled away, and then disappeared entirely. America was left breathing hard and a bit stunned, but she hastily sat up and looked around for the hellhound. She found it trotting calmly toward a human woman dressed all in purple, with a hugely wide brimmed hat.

The human looked at the dog. “Bad dog,” she told it firmly. “Stay here.” And then started to approach America. America braced herself, drawing her magic close, as she watched the human approach warily. “I am so sorry,” the human said. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened he’s never done that before, I’m so, so sor—”

The woman stopped. She was 5 feet away now and staring directly at America’s face. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing came out. America wondered if this was one of the humans who could see through glamours, and waited to see what would happen next.

The human woman kept staring, mouth agape. America looked between the human and the hellhound, who was sitting meekly a good distance away. Obediently. Hellhounds were infamous for only mostly obeying the unseelie who’d made them. America’s eyes came back to the human when she noticed a hand being held right in front of her face. The human was looking at her expectantly. America shook her head. She concentrated, drawing on the dirt underneath her and coaxing it in streams up her arm and into the gouges in her shoulder. She sighed as the pain receded, and then reached out and allowed the human to help her to her feet.

“Wow,” the human said. “That was… awesome.” She looked around, uncertain, then rubbed the back of her neck. “Listen, I’m— let me take you out for coffee. As an apology. God, you were _bleeding._ I’m Kate.”

Kate stuck out her hand again. America looked at it. She looked back up at Kate’s face and said, “You know he hates me because he’s a hellhound, right? And I’m from the summer court.” Though hellhounds seemed to hate her, specifically, more than most. Hell if she knew why. “Your dog is a _hellhound._ ”

~*~

They went for coffee.

It turned out Kate could not see through glamours, but knew her dog was a hellhound. A (human) friend of hers had saved its life and apparently earned its gratitude and loyalty. And then it had met Kate and “we just clicked right away, you know? He loves me.” The dog had a history, apparently, of growling at fae (Kate said this casually, as if being able to identify a fae on the street was a normal thing that everyone could do), but had never attacked one before.

“To be honest, I’ve never really met anybody from the summer court? Just winter.” Because Kate also knew multiple unseelie, and was—somehow—alive and in one piece. They were her friend’s ex-girlfriends, who still came around from time to time. _The loved ones of a favorite toy being left alone, perhaps?_ (And then: _maybe one of them is— but no, the fae she was after wouldn’t_ share).

She was the strangest human America had ever met. She sat across from America with her pumpkin spice latte and wiped whipped cream off of her lip as she talked about the summer court as though it were a place that you could go to for vacation, maybe. “My ex-girlfriend was stuck there for 8 years once, so now she’s still, like, a teenager, and also maybe undead? But like, it seems like a nice place.”

America sipped her own coffee and thought idly about wiping the cream off of Kate’s mouth herself. It was a nice mouth. Kate had a smile that made her lack of concern about all this _endearing._

At the end of a story about her friend’s (“Clint”) last ex-girlfriend had managed to win Lucky’s affection (“she’s really great. Intense, though. Kind of like you. I bet you’d like her”), Kate gripped her latte cup in both hands and leaned forward. “You know what, I may as well ask. Do you wanna head back to my place after this? I have more coffee there.”

America could practically see the quotation marks around the word ‘coffee’. Kate wasn’t particularly subtle. And her lack of concern wasn’t so endearing anymore. This girl hung out with _unseelie._ She was going to get herself eaten.

Kate was looking at America expectantly, waiting for an answer still, and, well. Who knows what she’d go out and do if America said no? Clearly, America couldn’t let her out of her sight. That was absolutely the only reason she said yes. And the reason she said yes the next dozen times, as well.


End file.
